Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire during the period 264 to 146BC. Three such wars took place, involving a total of forty-three years of warfare on both land and sea across the western Mediterranean region, and a four-year-long revolt against Carthage.
The First Punic War broke out on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in 264BC as a result of Rome's expansionary policy coming into conflict with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. At the start of the war Carthage was the dominant power in the western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was a rapidly expanding power in Italy, with a strong army but no navy. The fighting took place primarily on Sicily and its surrounding waters, as well as in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia. It lasted twenty-three years, until 241BC, when the Carthaginians were defeated. By the terms of the peace treaty Carthage paid large reparations and Sicily was annexed as the first Roman province. The end of the war sparked a major but eventually unsuccessful revolt within Carthaginian territory known as the Mercenary War.
The Second Punic War began in 218BC and witnessed the Carthaginian general Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and invasion of mainland Italy. This expedition enjoyed considerable early success and campaigned in Italy for fourteen years before the survivors withdrew. There was also extensive fighting in Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa. The successful Roman invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in Africa in 204BC led to Hannibal's recall. He was defeated in the battle of Zama in 202 BC and Carthage sued for peace. A treaty was agreed in 201BC which stripped Carthage of its overseas territories and some of its African ones, imposed a large indemnity, severely restricted the size of its armed forces and prohibited Carthage from waging war without Rome's express permission. This caused Carthage to cease to be a military threat to Rome.
In 151BC Carthage attempted to defend itself against Numidian encroachments; Rome used this as a justification to declare war in 149BC, starting the Third Punic War. This conflict was fought entirely on Carthaginian territory in what is now Tunisia and centred on the siege of Carthage. In 146BC the Romans stormed the city of Carthage, sacked it, slaughtered or enslaved its population and completely demolished the city. The Carthaginian territories were taken over as the Roman province of Africa. The ruins of the city lie east of modern Tunis on the North African coast.
Primary sources
The most reliable source for the Punic Wars is the historian Polybius, a Greek sent to Rome in 167BC as a hostage. He is best known for The Histories, written sometime after 146BC. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible interviewed participants from both sides in the events he wrote about. He accompanied his patron and friend, the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, in North Africa during the Third Punic War; modern historians consider Polybius to have treated Scipio and his relatives unduly favourably, but the consensus is to accept his account largely at face value. Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious and insightful historian", while the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states that "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts". Polybius's work is considered broadly objective in spite of his pro-Roman point of view. The details of the wars in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account.The other major source commonly used by modern historians, particularly where Polybius's account is not extant, is the Roman historian Livy. Livy relied heavily on Polybius, but wrote in a more structured way, with more details about Roman politics, as well as being openly pro-Roman. His accounts of military encounters are often demonstrably inaccurate; the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy says Livy's "reliability is often suspect", and the historian Philip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance".
Other, later ancient histories of the wars also exist, often in fragmentary or summary form. Modern historians usually take into account the writings of various Roman annalists, some contemporary; the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus; and later writers such as Plutarch, Appian, and Dio Cassius. No primary sources written from a Carthaginian point of view have survived, although elements of somesuch as Philinus of Agrigentumcan be found in the works of some of the pro-Roman writers, especially Polybius. Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions, such as the trireme Olympias.
Background and origin
The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century before the First Punic War. By 270 BC, when the last Greek cities of southern Italy submitted after the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War, it had conquered all of peninsular Italy south of the Arno River. During this period of Roman expansion Carthage, with its capital in what is now Tunisia, had come to dominate southern Iberia, much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and the western half of Sicily in a maritime empire.Beginning in 480BC Carthage fought a series of inconclusive wars against the Greek city-states of Sicily, led by Syracuse. By 264BC Carthage was in control of much of the island, especially in the south and the west. Carthage and Rome were the preeminent powers in the western Mediterranean. Relations were good and the two states had several times declared their mutual friendship in formal alliances: in 509BC, 348BC and around 279BC. There were strong commercial links. During the Pyrrhic War of 280–275BC, against a king of Epirus who alternately fought Rome in Italy and Carthage on Sicily, Carthage provided materiel to the Romans and on at least one occasion provided its navy to ferry a Roman force. As Rome and Carthage came closer to sharing a joint border the chances of misunderstandings and hostilities increased. In the event they stumbled into war more by accident than design, with neither anticipating a prolonged conflict.
Opposing forces
Armies
Male Roman citizens who met a property requirement were liable for military service. Most were eligible and would serve as infantry, with a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise two legions, each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. Approximately 1,200 members of the infantrypoorer or younger men unable to afford the armour and equipment of a standard legionaryserved as javelin-armed skirmishers known as velites; they each carried several javelins, which would be thrown from a distance, as well as a short sword and a large circular shield. The rest of the soldiers were equipped as heavy infantry, with body armour, a large shield and short thrusting swords. They were divided into three ranks: the front rank also carried two javelins, while the second and third ranks had a thrusting spear instead. Both legionary sub-units and individual legionaries fought in relatively open order. It was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year as senior magistrates, known as consuls, who in a time of war would each lead an army. An army was usually formed by combining a Roman legion with a similarly sized and equipped legion provided by their Italian allies; allied legions usually had a larger attached complement of cavalry than Roman ones.Carthaginian citizens only served in their army if there was a direct threat to the city of Carthage. When they did they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many were from North Africa and these are usually referred to as Libyans. The region provided several types of fighters, including: close-order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light-infantry skirmishers; close-order shock cavalry carrying spears; and light cavalry, skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat; the latter were usually Numidians. The close-order African infantry and the citizen-militia both fought in a tightly-packed formation known as a phalanx. On occasion some of the infantry would wear captured Roman armour, especially among the troops of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. In addition both Iberia and Gaul provided many experienced infantry and cavalry. The infantry from these areas were unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. The Gallic cavalry, and possibly some of the Iberians, wore armour and fought as close-order troops; most or all of the mounted Iberians were light cavalry. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands. The Carthaginians also employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time.
Garrison duty, foraging and land blockades were the most common operations. When armies were campaigning, surprise attacks, ambushes and stratagems were common. Armies of the time consumed large amounts of resources, in particular food. This could be supplied from stockpiles, either continuously taken to an army by pack animals or by army marching to its supply base at frequent intervals. Stockpiling the necessary quantities posed its own problems given the limited means of transportation of the time. Moving such bulk cargos was easier and swifter by sea, and was much preferred. The alternative, especially favoured in enemy territory, was to gather in what resources were locally available, which is known as foraging. If enemy forces were near this needed to be carried out in a controlled way, to prevent presenting easy opportunities for them to attack. Cavalry superiority made it much easier to protect ones own foragers or harass the enemy's. A large force relying on foraging would need to move frequently as they stripped the local countryside bare.
Formal battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping apart for days or weeks; sometimes both forming up in battle order each day. If either commander felt at a disadvantage, he might march off without engaging; in such circumstances it was difficult to force a battle. Forming up in battle order was a complicated and premeditated affair, which took several hours. Infantry were usually positioned in the centre of the battle line, with light-infantry skirmishers to their front and cavalry on each flank. Many battles were decided when one side's infantry force was attacked in the flank or rear and it was partially or wholly enveloped.